It's Not About the Tapas: Around Spain on Two Wheels [Paperback]

Polly Evans (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2003

After working for four years at a leading London book publisher, Polly Evans moved to Hong Kong where she spent many happy hours as a senior editor on the city's biggest entertainment weekly. But fighting deadlines from a twizzly office chair and free use of the coffee machine seemed just too easy. So Polly exchanged the shiny red cabs of Hong Kong for a more demanding form of transport - a bicycle - and set off on a voyage of discovery around Spain. From the thigh-burning ascents of the Pyrenees to the relentless olive groves of Andalusia, Polly found more adventures than she had bargained for. She survived a nail-biting encounter with a sprightly pig, escaped over-zealous suitors, had her morality questioned by the locals, encountered some dubious aficionados on the road and indulged her love of regional cooking. While she pedalled, Polly pondered some of the more lurid details of Spanish history - the king who collected pickled heads, the queen who toured the country with her husband's mouldering corpse, and the unfortunate duchess who lost her feet. And wherever she cycled, she ate and ate and yet still she shrank out of her trousers.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

A young Englishwoman leaves her unfulfilling job in Hong Kong and bicycles across Spain. From Basque country through Castile, Evans finds the Spanish hospitable, a nation rife with good food and dancing. Almost immediately she discovers that she lacks the physical stamina for riding her heavily laden bike through the Pyrenees' highest mountain passes. Nevertheless, she presses on, and her clothes grow too large for her newly lean physique. At her best when she leaves her self-involved narrative to give readers the opportunity to absorb the history and cultures of Spain's diverse regions, Evans' eye records delightfully unique sights, such as a group of vacationing female Spanish pensioners with their uniformly black garb and their bright, colorful hair rinses. With a young American writer, she learns about the flamenco tradition but never discovers a verifiable version of flamenco's origins. She finds vestiges of last century's civil war, but comes across few willing to talk about that grim era before democracy was restored. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

“A highly likable debut. As unpretentious as a tapas bar, and as brimming with savory morsels.” -- Kirkus Reviews

“A hilarious account of an epic adventure around bike–mad Spain.” -- Daily Express Book of the Week

“Evans’ eye records delightfully unique sights.” -- Booklist

“Readers who enjoy this vein of humor will delight in her book.” -- Publishers Weekly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 302 pages
• Publisher: Transworld Publishers (September 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553815563
• ISBN-13: 978-0553815566
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,755,604 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A downhill bike ride, October 15, 2006

By 

Kristin English (Cincinnati, OH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: It's Not About the Tapas: A Spanish Adventure on Two Wheels (Paperback)

At first, I really enjoyed this book and I read it for two hours straight when I should have been sleeping but I think my enjoyment was mainly due to my love of the Spanish country, people and culture.

But after a while, I grew annoyed with the lengthy, boring bits of history that seemed to occur more throughout the book than the author's actual happenings. And when Polly actually did write about her trip and not about the history, I felt that she was constantly slamming someone or something--whether it be the food, the people, the hotels or the town itself. Finally, when I was halfway through the book, I couldn't take it anymore and could bear to read another paragraph and I put the book down.

I do like Polly's writing style and there were humorous bits, but I am more after a memoir than a history book and I was really looking forward to a book where I could delight in hearing about Spain while away from the wonderful country itself, but instead I found a pessimistic, constantly-chastizing waste of my thirteen dollars.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars But the tapas are delicious, July 17, 2006

By 

Chantel (California, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: It's Not About the Tapas: A Spanish Adventure on Two Wheels (Paperback)

I have traveled to Spain and will return for a second go round shortly. When I saw this book in the new paperbacks section, I couldn't resist myself. I loved this book. It's smart, funny, and Polly Evans seamlessly ties in history lessons so you don't even know you're getting them.
Having a good Brittish friend, I understand her humor a little better than some other readers, but I laughed out loud at least once every ten pages and I am sure most others will as well.
Having been to Spain, also makes her descriptions and stories more interesting and real to me, but it would make a great read even if you just have an interest in Spain.
I love the little history lessons that she has sprinkled through out the book. Spain has an extremely fascinating history that she just skims the surface of. None the less, it greatens your appriciation of the places that she has traveled(and now I finally know why Spainiard love ham so much).

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not very engaging!, August 28, 2006

By 

Janice (Arlington, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: It's Not About the Tapas: A Spanish Adventure on Two Wheels (Paperback)

"It's Not About the Tapas: A Spanish Adventure on Two Wheels" by Polly Evans centered around the author's cycling adventure in different parts of Spain. Having left her editorial position in Hong Kong, Polly, yearned for a holiday and decided to journey across Spain by bicycle. In her journey, she met fascinating people, sample interesting cuisines and mostly trying to endure biking through the mountains.

This was a below average travelogue for me. I was struggling to finish the book as I found the author's description of her journey uninspiring. The author spent more than half of the book writing about the histories of famous people or buildings, which was not unusual in travelogues, but I felt that the author presented those facts just for the sake of it. For instance, she would arrive in a particular village, and she would go on about the history of the place and then she would move on to her next destination. There were not enough of personal observations of the various places she visited or even appreciation of another culture. I also felt that most of the time, she was not happy with her lodging or the people she met and I began to wonder what was the purpose of her trip. Lastly, the author hardly shared any personal information about herself and this was also why the book was not particularly engaging.